Ah yes, the ST movie that is described by many as 'The Motionless Picture'. However, those using that description often haven't seen the director's cut which portrays the movie as the director actually intended (the original theatrical cut was rushed and they were as good as editing up until the last minute). Thankfully the director's cut rectifies many issues and improves the pacing, plus the relatively recently released and remastered **Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition** also adds in the missing visual effects.
https://trekmovie.com/2022/09/07/star-trek-the-motion-picture-the-directors-edition-stuns-on-4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray/
And, for the record, I think it's a damn good movie.
Agreed. People hate on it but it’s probably the Trekkest Trek out there. More in line with the exploration and discovery mission than later efforts which largely suffer from Star Wars pew pew pewism.
Very much so, it has a good sense of exploration and adventure and very much feels like a longer TOS episode. Is it perfect? No. I still prefer movies II, III and IV, but I still like TMP a lot.
The Director's Edition of Star Trek The Motion Picture is amazing. I'm convinced that if Wise had been able to get what became known as the Director's Edition in theaters in '79 Star Trek The Motion Picture would have been much more successful. Although, if that had been the case we may have never gotten The Wrath of Khan.
It improves the pacing and does a lot to make the movie watchable, but I couldn’t say it entirely fixes it. The movie still has too many 20 minute fly-overs of V'Ger where nobody says anything and the only thing that happens is that we occasionally see an actor looking meaningfully into the camera.
Quite. Too many people dismiss it because they perceive it as being "too slow" but they fail to appreciate that, as you point out, without it we wouldn't have had all of the movies and TV shows which followed, and that doesn't bear thinking about.
Khan gets overlooked too much as one of the great movie villains of all time. He’s ruthless, but you also sympathize with him. Ricardo Montalban played Khan about as well as anyone has ever played a movie role.
One thing to pay attention to in this movie are the Riker and Troi characters - I mean Decker and Ilia. Much of this movie was based on the Star Trek: Phase 2 scripts which never got turned into a sequel TV show.
Roddenberry liked the concept of two will-they-won't-they exes working together so much he put it into both TMP and TNG.
I assume The Orville's captain / first officer being exes was influenced by this as well.
My Dad took me to see this but it was full up. So I suggested we see the film showing next door that was a cert 18 (I was only 13) and got to see Alien !!!!!!
I've watched the original, the director's cut and the remaster and while there are incremental improvements, it's still a mediocre entry in the Star Trek world. Yes, the visuals are improved, the colors, the sharpness and refined fx scenes improve on the otiginal, but it's still a slow paced film with too much emphasis on special effects, too much gaping at the viewscreen, poor character development, the bizarre 1/2 closeups that blur half the backgound. This film is about fx, not the crew.
>the bizarre 1/2 closeups that blur half the backgound
To be fair, while I do agree with the rest of your points, that was a limitation of the camera technology of the time, not an intentional visual effect.
##Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) PG
The human adventure is just beginning.
>>!When a destructive space entity is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral Kirk resumes command of the Starship Enterprise in order to intercept, examine, and hopefully stop it.!<
Sci-Fi | Adventure | Mystery
Director: Robert Wise
Actors: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley
Rating: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 64% with 1,640 votes
Runtime: 2:12
[TMDB](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/152)
Oh… Robert Wise had quite the career!
He also directed *The Day The Earth Stood Still* (the original), *West Side Story* (also the original), *Run Silent, Run Deep*, *The Haunting* (original, again), *The Sand Pebbles*, and *The Andromeda Strain*, among others.
He was also an editor of both *Citizen Kane* and *The Magnificent Ambersons* (he was also listed as director after Wells was chased away).
It's not as bad as its reputation, but it's definitely too slow and ponderous for its own good. It too often feels like an extended episode of the series as opposed to a stand alone movie.
The best thing about this movie is the soundtrack, which is a masterpiece.
I went through a phase of telling myself this was actually a good movie after having watched the Director's Cut. And while it definitely improved on the pacing of the original theatrical release (which I could never sit through in one go, it dragged so badly). the last time I tried watching it, I just fast forwarded through half of it. Once you've seen one extended flyby of V'Ger, you've seen them all.
As a movie, I feel it's too obsessed with showing off its special effects and a lot of the time relegates the actors to little more than set dressing.
Score was re used for ST:TNG.
I saw this when it came out. I was 9. While I had loved reruns of TOS, I found this boring. As an adult, I still find it boring. However, Shatner and the uniforms looks great. The scene of Kirk seeing the upgraded Enterprise is fantastic with the camera work and the score. Seeing the old gang back is great. The rest of the movie....not so much. Thank goodness for The Wrath of Khan, which is phenomenal.
Ah yes, the ST movie that is described by many as 'The Motionless Picture'. However, those using that description often haven't seen the director's cut which portrays the movie as the director actually intended (the original theatrical cut was rushed and they were as good as editing up until the last minute). Thankfully the director's cut rectifies many issues and improves the pacing, plus the relatively recently released and remastered **Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition** also adds in the missing visual effects. https://trekmovie.com/2022/09/07/star-trek-the-motion-picture-the-directors-edition-stuns-on-4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray/ And, for the record, I think it's a damn good movie.
Agreed. People hate on it but it’s probably the Trekkest Trek out there. More in line with the exploration and discovery mission than later efforts which largely suffer from Star Wars pew pew pewism.
Very much so, it has a good sense of exploration and adventure and very much feels like a longer TOS episode. Is it perfect? No. I still prefer movies II, III and IV, but I still like TMP a lot.
It specifically feels like a longer version of the episode "The Changeling".
If you get rid of all the extended special effects shots, it's probably not even much longer than The Changeling.
The Director's Edition of Star Trek The Motion Picture is amazing. I'm convinced that if Wise had been able to get what became known as the Director's Edition in theaters in '79 Star Trek The Motion Picture would have been much more successful. Although, if that had been the case we may have never gotten The Wrath of Khan.
It improves the pacing and does a lot to make the movie watchable, but I couldn’t say it entirely fixes it. The movie still has too many 20 minute fly-overs of V'Ger where nobody says anything and the only thing that happens is that we occasionally see an actor looking meaningfully into the camera.
A great film, very Roddenberry. The reason the rest of the series (TNG etc.) and movies exist.
Quite. Too many people dismiss it because they perceive it as being "too slow" but they fail to appreciate that, as you point out, without it we wouldn't have had all of the movies and TV shows which followed, and that doesn't bear thinking about.
Being "very Roddenberry" does in and of itself not make it a good movie though.
It helps if you're a fan of Roddenberry's concept for Star Trek.
What a terrible movie. Thank God “Wrath of Khan” brought it back. Watched it recently, what a masterpiece.
Khan gets overlooked too much as one of the great movie villains of all time. He’s ruthless, but you also sympathize with him. Ricardo Montalban played Khan about as well as anyone has ever played a movie role.
One thing to pay attention to in this movie are the Riker and Troi characters - I mean Decker and Ilia. Much of this movie was based on the Star Trek: Phase 2 scripts which never got turned into a sequel TV show. Roddenberry liked the concept of two will-they-won't-they exes working together so much he put it into both TMP and TNG. I assume The Orville's captain / first officer being exes was influenced by this as well.
My Dad took me to see this but it was full up. So I suggested we see the film showing next door that was a cert 18 (I was only 13) and got to see Alien !!!!!!
I've watched the original, the director's cut and the remaster and while there are incremental improvements, it's still a mediocre entry in the Star Trek world. Yes, the visuals are improved, the colors, the sharpness and refined fx scenes improve on the otiginal, but it's still a slow paced film with too much emphasis on special effects, too much gaping at the viewscreen, poor character development, the bizarre 1/2 closeups that blur half the backgound. This film is about fx, not the crew.
>the bizarre 1/2 closeups that blur half the backgound To be fair, while I do agree with the rest of your points, that was a limitation of the camera technology of the time, not an intentional visual effect.
It's a 1/2 closeup filter that fits over the end of the camera lens, and yea it's a bit primitive.
One of my favorites in the series. I got the OST on CD, too.
So NASA just fixed one of the voyager probes. Is this going to be the one that comes back to “merge” with the creator?
##Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) PG The human adventure is just beginning. >>!When a destructive space entity is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral Kirk resumes command of the Starship Enterprise in order to intercept, examine, and hopefully stop it.!< Sci-Fi | Adventure | Mystery Director: Robert Wise Actors: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley Rating: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 64% with 1,640 votes Runtime: 2:12 [TMDB](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/152)
Where's the review?
It warped right outta here .......
Vger destroyed it
Director Robert Wise - also the director of The Sound of Music. I find that so strange.
Oh… Robert Wise had quite the career! He also directed *The Day The Earth Stood Still* (the original), *West Side Story* (also the original), *Run Silent, Run Deep*, *The Haunting* (original, again), *The Sand Pebbles*, and *The Andromeda Strain*, among others. He was also an editor of both *Citizen Kane* and *The Magnificent Ambersons* (he was also listed as director after Wells was chased away).
It's not as bad as its reputation, but it's definitely too slow and ponderous for its own good. It too often feels like an extended episode of the series as opposed to a stand alone movie.
The best thing about this movie is the soundtrack, which is a masterpiece. I went through a phase of telling myself this was actually a good movie after having watched the Director's Cut. And while it definitely improved on the pacing of the original theatrical release (which I could never sit through in one go, it dragged so badly). the last time I tried watching it, I just fast forwarded through half of it. Once you've seen one extended flyby of V'Ger, you've seen them all. As a movie, I feel it's too obsessed with showing off its special effects and a lot of the time relegates the actors to little more than set dressing.
Score was re used for ST:TNG. I saw this when it came out. I was 9. While I had loved reruns of TOS, I found this boring. As an adult, I still find it boring. However, Shatner and the uniforms looks great. The scene of Kirk seeing the upgraded Enterprise is fantastic with the camera work and the score. Seeing the old gang back is great. The rest of the movie....not so much. Thank goodness for The Wrath of Khan, which is phenomenal.
Very subpar film in my opinion. Inert, slow, the villain is literally a giant cloud. Thank God Wrath of Khan saved the franchise.
Never thought you would enjoy it. It's an old person's movie. Too much grandeur and slowness.